Tax Day

Funny how we meet and develop relationships, not that I have been courting a relationship, but I'm in a relationship now that seems to have been somewhat unavoidable. As many of you constant readers know as I ride the train in the morning and half asleep, groggy barely conscious I'm lucky if I am conscious spend a lot of my time on my tablet reading or on my cell phone updating either my blog or my Facebook page. I don't know if I do it intentionally but I try not to engage as much as possible. Don't know if this makes me one sick cookie but it is how I am right now.

It's interesting this one rides the train or bus consistency seems to be important. If nothing else to get to know your driver because you see him every day, just as are other traveling mates. These folks if they get on the bus at the same spot enough you begin to look for them and even somewhat concerned if and when they don't show up at their appointed time. So it is been with Cory. Cory is a guy who would get on my bus, heading for the train, one-stop further down State Street from my stop. I noticed when I got on the bus he was often with Hispanic or Latino woman who he would try to conversation with in her native tongue. I overheard him say it was his way of trying to learn her language was somewhat ironic is that she was trying to learn English and I believe engaged in conversation with Cory for the same reason. Cory seem to be somewhat blue-collar longhair, a shade of an accident from somewhere down south – – later I learned from Ohio. I'm amazed at how many people I meet were from Ohio. Anyway, we wrote the train to Murray station 2 and he began to unfasten the wheelchair tie downs when we came into the station. His undoing of the tiedowns I thought was a nice gesture freeing up the driver who at the time has his hands full deploying the ramp to download be off the vehicle. The little thing about pre-nice thing well those things so demands you further engaging conversation with the individual. This will now for about three weeks we decided it's finally time to exchange names. Now I'm not good with names but his is actually a name that I used as a codename when I worked hotlines in Idaho in the 70s so it was easy for me to remember his name: Cory. Our conversations were still quite limited only two sentences, usually about how we spent the weekend or the day. Other bits of information gathered and is one to sentence exchanges is that he's a single-parent, the parent of a female teenager, which in my book makes it somewhat super. He actually structures as life around this teenager girl: taking vacation on her birthday to make sure he has time to be with her even after she decides she has something else in mind to do that day. Structures weekend events to be with his daughter it seems to be working. What I think is really amazing is that Craig does this without a vehicle this is all done on public transit. I was a Saturday dad non-custodial, and for a while I did the same thing on Kid day and I know how hard that was to do once a week, to try to do that everyday you drive me crazy. Today for some reason we moved to the next step. I don't know if it was because it was raining or they had missed his regular University train but I found out what he did for a living, his shipping clerk or manager for ceramic research and development production operation. I found his certified for hazmat work, he's in awe of the a heads/engineers who developed the stuff that he works on. He is a bright guy, when I should've gotten a break and on the school and really moved up. Looks like a biker, tattoos, longhair and the walk – – maybe he is that toys on the bus. What is a good guy, I can tell I just wonder where relationship goes now. Cory gets off the train at the 21st St. stop it has West out his plant. My thought that was to encounter for the day.

Two stops later, John the quad drove his power wheelchair under the train. Now John is interesting piece of work, he's a fairly high quad, relatively new to his disability and working as a teacher's aide somewhere on the east side of Salt Lake City. I've never really understood his relationship. John has some sort of a love-hate relationship with his wife. I'm sure John is a lot of maintenance, John seem somewhat fastidious, since this by the way he dresses and how he seems to see himself. Unlike my friend Cory, I have been somewhat distant with John. Oh I given them a card once or twice and engaged born morning conversation the more it seemed to run into him on the train rolling around downtown. But still we are quite a ways from that" that next step". So was a little surprised release taken aback when he looked at me and said" can I ask you something? Is getting on is getting dumped normal for disability? How do you get on with your life and your wife dumps you." So instantly, I dropped into" big brother, counselor, down the road quad" try to do a little active listing in the few minutes left on the train. John, smart enough to realize he was still sort of in shock, said he was numb, I understood this, I told him I'd been to this twice before – – John seem some what shocked, for a second, he was too involved with his own pain spend much time online or see me as an authority in his pain just yet, but I am and maybe, just maybe this is where neither be this rainy Tax Day morning when I have it all figured out with Cory.